Against the LC Practice of Prophesying

[Cal]

Originally Posted by OBW

Don't look at those average church goers and presume anything based on what you think you see over an hour or so. You might find you didn't really know. I wouldn't have known concerning this man without the more regular contact.

I'm talking about Christians I see again and again. I get very little registration there is much joy unspeakable and full of glory in their lives (Peter said that, too, BTW). I understand that you can't tell much about someone at a glance. But after you've been around a person for awhile you kind of figure out what they are about.

The bottom line is a true person of faith is going to have the fruits of the Spirit. And that starts, not with self-control, but with love, joy and peace. The implication is that love, joy and peace help us have self-control, (and vice versa to be fair). Now, you might feel like a hero by saying you don't need to "refuel," but you can tell someone else because I don't buy it for a minute. Unless you are not a human being you do need it, because we all do, because we are emotional creatures who need God's Spirit to recharge. God made us that way.

Our faith is demonstrated by our (1) good works. It is also demonstrated by our demeanor, which is made attractive by (2) love, joy and peace. If you have the former but not the latter, well people might think you are a trooper, but they are not going to want to be like you.

If you have the latter without the former, then one of two things will happen: you will gain the former or you will lose the latter. But anyone who has the former in its genuine manifestation has the latter, too, most of the time. Anyone who (over the long term) claims to have the former but rarely has the latter is actually full of baloney, laboring in his flesh and not representing the Lord well.

I would never discount your friend with the lung. But I have a friend, George (below the night before surgery), who has been fighting cancer for over a year and just last week had a lemon-sized tumor removed from his brain. He's like a light bulb. Now he was this way before, but he's still this way. He's able to manifest love, joy and peace. So what's my excuse, or yours?



Experience means Christ has gone from being a theory to being real to you. The result is love, joy and peace. Peter called it joy unspeakable and full of glory. Do you have that? If not, you should take a break from discounting everyone's experience and get some.